


Broken Remnants

by Morning_Glory



Series: Trope Bingo Prompt Fills [9]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mind Control, Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery, Past Violence, Secrets, Trope Bingo Round 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-14
Updated: 2013-11-14
Packaged: 2018-01-01 13:54:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1044745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morning_Glory/pseuds/Morning_Glory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A nightmare leads to an accident, and to Bucky discovering a dark secret Clint and Darcy have been hiding for years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Remnants

**Author's Note:**

> This is not the story I expected to write, but this is what I ended up with. My brain is a weird and scary place sometimes. As always, all mistakes are mine, all characters are not.
> 
>  
> 
> There is a brief mention of implied torture, nothing described but warning for it anyway, just in case, so your mileage may vary, proceed with caution, etc.

 

 

_He's there again, inside her head, ripping her open and trying to tear the secrets out of her. That voice, dark and menacing, whispering low threats and terrifying promises in her ear as his fingers close around her throat. The slice of sharp metal against skin and the smell of blood. It's back. The blue glow creeping in at the edges of her vision. The icy burn crawling through her veins. He laughs as she screams ._

* * *

 

Darcy jolts as she hits the floor, cutting off the sound of her own screaming. She gets to her feet and stumbles across the private room Thor insisted she have on his floor in the tower as if running on autopilot, terrified and blank, her mind locked on a single thought. Clint. She's reaches the elevator and her hand mashes the panel, repeatedly, but it isn't moving fast enough for her and she bolts for the rarely used stairs. She needs Clint.

* * *

 

Bucky hears the door opening above and the sound of bare feet slapping against the stairs. He looks up with a frown. No one uses the stairs here, which make them the perfect place to escape to on the bad nights, when he'd rather be alone to deal with his past creeping up on him than watch the devastated look on Steve's face when he just can't leave it alone and pushes Bucky too far. 

Sight catches up to sounds and he finally sees the runner, bare feet slipping slightly as she rounds the corner of the landing above him at full speed. Bucky expects her to slow as she gets closer, but she keeps moving as if she doesn’t notice him. Before he can get out of her way, she trips over his legs and lands hard, rolling to a stop against the wall. Bucky rushes to her side, absently noting the streak of blood on the floor near her legs, and uncomfortably aware that she hasn’t made a sound. When he finally gets a clear look at her it takes him a second to realize that he knows her. He’s only seen her a few times, always within arms reach of Thor or one of his Asgardian buddies, and his mind struggles to come up with her name.

“Lewis?” She jerks her head up, expression twisted with fear and eyes haunted. He freezes because he knows that look. Whatever she's seeing isn't here, isn't _him_ , and any time he moves toward her she drags herself across the floor, cringing away. "Lewis. Snap out of it." Bucky keeps his voice low and even as he tries to talk her out of this state. He knows intimately the risks of touching someone when they're like this, has given and gotten the scars to prove it, but as she inches closer to the top of the stairs, he may not have a choice. "Come on, kid. Don't make me do this." 

Darcy flinches at his words and spins away quickly, reaching the top of the stairs and pulling herself up with the handrail before he can get to her. She doesn’t make it far. Bucky curses, lunging forward as her leg with the cut gives out under her and she stumbles forward, out of his reach. She makes a desperate grab for the rail, but misses and pitches down the stairs head first.

“Fuck,” Bucky takes the stairs four at a time in his rush to reach where Darcy lies in a heap at the bottom. “JARVIS, a little help?” As he gets close he can see her eyes are still open, wide and terrified, and just as disturbingly unaware of her surroundings as she was before she fell. She still hasn't made a sound. 

“Agent Barton has been alerted and will arrive momentarily.” Bucky nods distractedly as he crouches down next to her, reaching out to check her pulse. The sharp crack of Hawkeye’s voice breaking the silence freezes him in place.

“ _Don’t_ touch her.”

Bucky backs away slowly, hands raised, as Hawkeye, and despite wearing only a pair of grey boxer-briefs it is unquestionably Hawkeye in work mode, not Clint, approaches and drops to his stomach on the floor in front of Darcy so they are face to face. He keeps just enough distance to make sure he won't accidentally touch her.

"Darce, I know you can hear me. It's Clint. I'm here. JARVIS, injuries?" He doesn't move or look away even for a second. "It's okay, sweetheart. He's not here. I've got you. We're in Avengers Tower. You're safe. JARVIS?"

"Minor injuries only. A shallow cut on the left leg from the initial fall that should not require stitches. Sprained left ankle and right wrist. Three bruised ribs. Possibility of concussion, limited, but worth further observation. Likely further bruising to develop. Shall I alert medical to expect you, Agent Barton?" Bucky winces at the list, but knows it could have been a lot worse, given how she got hurt. What he hears next surprises him. 

"Shit. Thanks, JARVIS, but no. I've got it." Clint sighs, focusing all his attention on Darcy again and Bucky suddenly feels like he is intruding on something. "Okay, Darce, I need you to work with me here. Can you focus on my voice? I know you can hear it." 

No reaction. The only sign she is even still alive is the almost non-existent rise and fall of her back with her breathing. Bucky knows the lack of response is not good, and holds his breath as Clint tries again. 

"He's halfway across the universe. He can't reach you. Can you look at me? Come on, Darce, show me you can hear me." Both men register the full body shudder and strangled moan, and Bucky gives a nearly silent sigh of relief. Progress, even something as small as that, is a good sign. He's also distantly aware of his brain cataloguing the way the muscles in Clint's back twitch as he muffles his own shaky breath. "That's my girl. Don't try to move yet. Can you blink to let me know you're in there?" She blinks slowly, her eyes shifting as if she is finally starting to see. "That's it, sweetheart. Now will you look at me?" Her eyes waver slightly before focusing on Clint's face.

"Clint?" Darcy’s voice is shaky and barely above a whisper and her face scrunches up in confusion. 

"I'm here." Clint hasn't so much as shifted a millimetre from his position when he dropped, something the sniper part of Bucky's brain notes appreciatively. 

"Hurts." It comes out as more of a whimper than anything. 

"I know, Darce. Do you remember what happened?" There is a long pause as she struggles to think. Neither man makes a sound.

"Nightmare. He was..." She breaks off with a raw sob, but so far there are still no tears. 

"You had a nightmare and you were coming to see me." Clint reassures, maintaining his sniper stillness as Darcy struggles to keep her eyes focused. A small part of Bucky, a part he wasn't sure still existed, wishes he could lean down and offer her comfort, but the rest of him recognizes this is something he has to let Clint handle. Clearly this isn't the first time they've been through this. "Can you tell me where you are, Darce?"

She glances around as much as she can without moving. "Tower. Stairs. Fell." She blinks quickly and frowns. "Tripped? Someone there. Clint?"

"It's okay, sweetheart. I've got you. You got hurt when you fell, so I'm gonna pick you up and carry you to my place to take care of you. That okay?" She shuts her eyes and nods carefully. "You know I need to hear you say it, Darce. Can I pick you up? Will you let me do that?"

"Yes." Bucky watches as Clint moves with the ease and fluidity of a trained acrobat, shifting himself and Darcy around so smoothly she doesn't even seem to notice she's moving until she's settled securely in his arms. He stands with the appearance of no effort and starts to walk as Darcy curls into his chest. He glances over his shoulder briefly and nods for Bucky to follow. 

Bucky doesn't hesitate, curiosity and concern spurring him on. Clearly there's a story here that he's stumbled into and he wants to see it through now. He trails Clint into his apartment, the door sliding shut behind him automatically as he follows the low murmur of Darcy's voice to the large living room. His eyes scan the room out of instinct and training, seeking out exit routes and possible weapons as Clint lowers Darcy onto the couch with infinite care. Once he’s sure she’s settled he crouches down by her head so she can see him easily.

“Darce, I need to get the kit.” Her hand shoot out, latching onto his arm and he stills. “I’ll be out of your line of sight for 30 seconds, at most.” She hesitates and he leans down to rest his forehead against hers, and from his current position, Bucky can see they both have their eyes closed. “You know it’s either this or medical, sweetheart. Your choice.” Darcy releases her grip and opens her eyes. Clint stands up and she watches warily as he walks across the room. She stops breathing entirely when he disappears through the door, but, as promised, he is only out of her sight for a few seconds before he reappears carrying a large case. “See? I’m back." Darcy closes her eyes again and exhales slowly.

As Clint sets the large case down on the coffee table, his eyes flick to Bucky, still lurking just inside the room. He nods to one of the chairs, not waiting to see if Bucky moves before turning his attention back to Darcy. He starts with the cut on her leg, cleaning and bandaging while keeping up a steady stream of words, reassuring her that he is still there. After a few minutes, Darcy begins to answer back quietly, shifting as needed to give Clint access to take care of her injuries.

Seated in the chair Clint directed him to, Bucky can see everything, and internally berates himself for lingering appreciatively over the sight of her curves and the flashes of bare skin, the way the they look together, as Clint takes care of her wounds with a surprising amount of skill. He hears every word they both say, but has difficulty following the conversation. Clint and Darcy speak to each other mostly in fragments and sounds that clearly make sense to them but make deciphering the content damn near impossible. Only his years of experience as a spy lets Bucky piece together as much as he does.

Clint checks with JARVIS again before he offers Darcy two pills. She takes them without question, popping them into her mouth as Clint cracks open a bottle of water for her. She drinks carefully, wincing as she swallows the pills, and hands the bottle back.

“Here or bed?" Clint puts the bottle down on the table out of the way and, as Darcy considers her options, repacks what Bucky thinks is a ridiculously elaborate first aid kit. Just from what little he could see, someone could easily perform minor surgery with that thing. It seems a little much, even by his standards, but then again, it is Clint, and they've all heard the stories.

“Here?" Darcy sounds unsure of her choice, but Clint just nods, finishing packing up and stashes the kit beside the couch. When he's done, he shifts Darcy again so she is lying comfortably with her head on his leg. He continues their low conversation, running one of his hands through her hair, until she drifts off to sleep. Only then does he shift his focus to Bucky.

“No one hears about this.” Clint’s voice is the same low, calm tone he’s been using with Darcy since he found her, but his eyes promise very bad things if he’s ignored. Bucky nods his agreement. He's seen enough to understand.

"Not from me." Bucky keeps his voice down, not wanting to disturb Darcy. Clint studies him for a long moment before nodding. "What happened?"

"I lead him to her." Bucky flinches, familiar enough with his own guilty conscience to recognize the same in Clint. He waits silently, knowing the archer will continue when he's ready. It doesn't take long for Clint to find his voice again. He explains how after escaping with the cube, Loki insisted Clint take him to Jane, but when they got there, S.H.I.E.L.D. had already moved her somewhere safe. Instead he found Darcy, judged unimportant and left behind by the agent in charge of the extraction. 

Not wanting to interrupt the flow, Bucky makes a mental note to ask Clint later what happened to that agent. He’s got a pretty good idea of where this story is going and hearing about the kind of revenge Clint got on the agent might help him resist the urge to track the guy down himself. Bucky refocuses his attention when he hears the slight waver in Clint's voice as he tells how he stepped in to stop Loki killing her outright by suggesting she was more useful to them alive.

"She wouldn't tell him anything, and I had to stand there and watch while he..." Clint stops as Darcy shifts against him with a whimper. He closes his eyes and takes a calming breath, but a part of Bucky is glad he couldn't say it. He has enough nightmares of his own actions without needing the details of something that can put that kind of look on Clint's face. "She fought him, and somehow kept from telling him anything useful, even after he took her over. He didn't understand how she did it, so he kept her a secret from the others. I was the only one who even knew he had her."

"After Thor left, I remembered and went back for her the first chance I got. His control was fading but she was still struggling and she asked me for help." Bucky shakes his head as Clint explains exactly how Natasha knocked Loki out of his head, and how doing the same for Darcy was out of the question. "Given her state when I found her, I don't know if she would have survived something like that, even if I could have stomached doing it." Bucky’s only heard stories about Loki, mostly from Steve and Natasha, but it’s enough to guess at the kind of damage he could and would do to someone who got in his way. He turns his thoughts in another direction.

"So, S.H.I.E.L.D. has no idea?" Clint shakes his head and the part of Bucky that still doesn't trust the agency flares up, glad to see someone pulling one over on them. That it's for a good cause just sweetens it. 

"I'm an asset to them, so they had a vested interest in..." Clint pauses to think of the right word. " _Fixing_ me. Aside from Selvig, none of the others have been seen since, and him only because of Jane, and by extension, Thor." 

Bucky narrows his eyes. "You think they'd take her." 

"What happened with her was different, so I don't think even Thor's intervention would have made them give her up if they knew the truth." Clint looks down at the brunette currently using his thigh as a pillow. "And she's suffered enough already without that." 

"You _love_ her." Bucky think back over what he's seen, filtering it through this new knowledge, and it's the only explanation for the way Clint is looking at her right now.

Clint pauses, taking his own chance to study Bucky, before answering. "Probably not the way you mean it, but yeah. I think there's too much between us for that to work now.” Clint gives a half-shrug, not quite able to meet Bucky’s eyes, but he doesn’t need to. Bucky thinks about his Natalia, now Natasha, and understands. “If things had been different, maybe, but not like this. Really, I just want her to be okay. And I'm the only one she's got, other than Thor."

"I thought she’s Foster's assistant?" Bucky feels a rush of frustration that he doesn’t already know this. He may not spend a lot of time with the scientists, but he’s basically lived with these people every day in the eleven or so months since Steve got him away from S.H.I.E.L.D., and he was trained to gather information. He should already have all of this interpersonal stuff figured out by now.

"The agent who left Darcy behind lied to Jane, told her Darcy refused to go and didn't want to be a part of her mess anymore.” The muscles in Clint’s jaw tense as he clenches his teeth and Bucky reconsiders his need to track down the asshole agent himself, sure that whatever punishment Clint came up with for him couldn’t possibly be enough. “Jane took it as a betrayal and when everything was done, made it clear that Darcy had made her choice and she wasn't welcome anymore.”

“But Darcy lives here?” Bucky frowns. This just keeps getting more complicated.

Clint lets out a tired sigh. “Thor insisted on that." He anticipates Bucky’s next question and cuts him off. “Apparently, the bastard taunted him about what he’d done to her.”

“So why not just tell Foster the truth?” Bucky knows what it’s like to be in Darcy's position; knows too, just how necessary it is to have people you can trust around to help.

“Darcy refuses.” Clint shakes his head and Bucky resists the urge to do the same. “We negotiated a lot of conditions around this whole thing in the beginning, and no one finding out was one of her big ones.”

“You’re telling me now.”

“And if I didn’t, how long would it have taken you to go to Cap, or Tasha and ask one of them about it?” Bucky nods his agreement to that point. He knows that’s exactly what he would have done. But he’s still not sure he believes that no one else knows about any of this; not with the kind of people who live here, with their training and experience. And even if Stark didn’t put in automatic flags for using his AI to scan for injuries like Clint had earlier, after the his near death by poison incident, Bucky’d bet his left arm Potts added some of her own. Even if, as Clint says, Darcy hardly ever spends time with anyone without Thor or one of his buddies running interference, someone _must_ have figured it out.

“This is so fucked up.” Bucky pauses, mind going back over all the times he's seen Darcy in the tower and bites off another curse. “Wait, did Foster turn everyone against her? That's why everyone treats her like… Goddammit, Barton." Both men go sniper still and silent as Darcy whimpers at the raised, angry voices. Bucky clenches his teeth and watches as Clint soothes her back into rest. 

“She’s never actually said or done anything, but Jane’s made it clear she isn't happy having Darcy around her. Since she's the _important_ one," it's not obvious enough to be called a sneer, but Bucky notes the subtle change in tone over that description. He’d bet anything those words originated with the other agent. Mentally, he starts cataloguing which weapons to bring with him. "Everyone else just mostly goes along with it. I know at least two of them have cornered Thor about it being inappropriate to keep Darcy like this while he’s with Jane, and Stark, of all people, had a talk with him about discretion.”

Bucky stifles a snort. Clearly he’s been overestimating the intelligence _and_ observational skills of his teammates if, after seeing them together, they believe Thor’s ever touched her as anything more than a friend or brother. “You ever think about just taking her away from all this for a while?”

“Thought about it, but realized pretty quickly that it wouldn’t work.” Clint rolls his eyes, explaining how he still can’t leave the tower for anything except a mission without someone following him around. “S.H.I.E.L.D. would find it suspicious. And technically, I’m still on probation for that thing with the blue hedgehogs.”

Bucky considers his words, what he’s opening himself up to, very carefully before he speaks. “Think she'd go with me?” Clint studies him warily for a long time before asking why he’d offer that.

“Just want to help out if I can. Look, your girl got a raw deal, that’s not even in question.” Talk about understating the issue, but Bucky’s latched onto the idea that he could help with this, he wants to help her, help _them_ , and stubbornly keeps going. “And given my history, it’s safe to say I’m uniquely qualified to deal with this kinda stuff.” The corners of Clint’s lips twitch slightly at Bucky’s tone and he takes that as a positive sign. He goes on to explain his separation from S.H.I.E.L.D. as negotiated by Steve, suggesting that maybe Clint should talk to the man about his own issues with agency stalkers. “Biggest thing though, is I’ve got more distance from it than you do. Probably do you both good to have some time to deal with this stuff apart.”

Clint watches him for a long while without saying anything. When he does speak up again, he agrees with the points Bucky made and give his reluctant approval of the idea. “Pending Darcy’s input, of course.”

“Of course.” They spend the rest of the night quietly planning how to make it work while Darcy sleeps peacefully in their company.


End file.
